September 29, 2014

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BB

Yesterday, Brigitte Bardot celebrated her 80th birthday. Which got me thinking: how can it, that such an untalented woman, was still so famous? I could think of one thing: her beauty.

As Actress... well, she wasn't good, to be honest. And maybe she had to hire a vocal coach before she started singing. My formed my opinion while was in my sixth year of high school. We had to design a dress that was inspired by a woman in the music business. First of all: it is because she made... what, Three songs, that you are a musician. Second of all: she had the most boring taste in the world! I wanted Cher but no, that didn't happend!

You can compare Brigitte the most with Paris Hilton (only Paris is famous for being... being... actually, what is Paris famous for?). BB wanted to do everything that could show people that she had talent, but regrettably the recognition stayed out. She made forty-six movies but only a handful were worth watching. (source: De Standaard Magazine)

But I don't want to rattle on about what she wasn't or couldn't. I want to talk about her natural beauty and her - I'm not jealous - perfectly done makeup.

Like Vogue said: she could capture girlish innocence and dangerous animal magnetism in just one look. She was in that time, after the film launch of 'Et Dieu créa la femme', more popular than Marilyn Monroe! What was her secret? Yes, her curves (of course) and the fact she showed some skin but also for her natural beauty.

The perfectly fitted heavy liquid liner and the nude plump lips made the young girl a star. I have to be honest: she had some bad moments, and by that, I am talking about the heavy lipliner, but the way she wore her makeup after 1960... Her iconic look: bouffant waves, winged liquid liner and pale lipstick.

She mastered the Perfectly Imperfect Cat-Eye and it was like she needed only five minutes to get ready! I tried to create the look myself but that went nowhere. I think I miss some things for that *thinking face*

Oh wait, I know! Texture in my hair, beautiful lips and a great smile!

Oh well: here are my attempts to do the BB-look :)

My first step was creating a luminous fresh base. Like all French women a perfect skin was a must and so I cleansed my face, hydrated it and used a primer.

After all that stuff was sunk in I perfected my eye area by using first a BB cream (how appropriate) and than a concealer. You have to take it up to the corner of the eye for a silky smooth eye area because Brigitte hadn't any dark circles!

Then I applied a foundation and some extra concealer where necessary. You don't have to do this step if you think you're looking already awesome :)

For the brave under us: use a (light) liner for drawing on some freckles and dip some foundation over it to make it more realistic.

After the foundation I made my face St-Tropez ready: only a little bit bronzer on the nose bridge and on the apples of the cheeks. I brought over the bronzer on the cheeks a little bit pink blush. Very light and I blended it in, all over my cheeks up till the outer corner of my eyes. It is a little bit scary to do that but that is the best way to create some innocence.

Time for contouring! This is my favourite part because it can make your face look slimmer! I did this in two steps. Contouring with a liquid and contouring with a powder. First I started shaping my face with the liquid. I concentrated on my jawbones and my chin. You want to make your face more square and your jawbones sharp. You can even make a very subtle chin dimple.

After that you use your contour powder for accentuate you cheekbones by applying it right under them.

Now, the eyes! The only two things you need is actually a grey eye-shadow and a black kohl. You can go crazy by this one. I smudged some dark grey eye-shadow over my whole eyelid but because I applied it very thin it wasn't that dramatic.

The kohl made the drama :) I made a line right above my upper lash line and made a little flick. It is like applying a liquid eyeliner but know you can be a little bit sloppy. With a Q-tip you can blend it out a little bit. Then I did the same with your lower lash line and even with my waterline. You apply the kohl into the corners of your eye and go up to your upper waterline for a really dark and intense effect.

For mascara, I used two kinds: one with an extending effect and one that made my lashes very thick. If you want, you can use some fake eyelashes.

For the lips it very easy: I coloured my lips in with a darker nude/light brown lipliner and after that, with a lighter nude lipstick. If you have thin lips you can overdraw them a little bit but make sure that you don't have an Daisy Duck effect :)

Now things you don't have to do:
- Fill in you eyebrows: in the sixties they didn't pay attention to their eyebrows, so to be authentic, we leave them like that.
- Keep yourself to the right order: if you a little bit too sloppy or your makeup isn't that good quality, you can first do your eyes and than the foundation. So you have a need face!
Finish with some highlighter just above you cupid's bow and you're done!